Rail-anchor.



UNITED STATES PATENT UFFIGE.

JOHN M. SCOTT, 0F RACINE, WISCONSIN, ASSIGNOR TC OTTO R. BARNETT, 0FCHICKGZ'P ILLINOIS.

RAIL ANCHGR.

Application filed isugust 26, 1913.

To all whom it may come r11:

Be it known that 1, JOHN lil. Storm, :1 citizen of the United States,residing at Racine, in the county of Racine and State of Wis cousin,have invented certain new and useful Improvements in RuiLAnchors, ofwhich the following is a specification.

My invention relates to devices for preventing the longitudinal creep ofrailroad rails. such devices being variously called rail anchors,anti-creepers or rail stays.

The object of the invention is to provide a. device of this sort uhichwill effectively prevent the rail from creeping under all conditions,which will not be loosened or displaced from operative position by thevi bration of the rail, or other causes, which can he very easilyapplied to the rail without special tools and by the ordinary trncknitm,and which, besides possessing these requisites, can be manufactured at aery low cost.

More specifically and particularly, my invention seeks to improve uponrail anchors of the one-piece type by providing a form of device, conssting of a single integral casting, which will take a firmer, more re- Iliable hold upon the rail than the one-piece anchors now in use, andwhich will be superior to such devices in certain other respects tobehereinafter set forth.

T he invention is illustrated, in a preferred embodiment, in theaccompanying drawings,

wherein- Figure 1 is a side view of-the device fitted to a railroadrail, the rail being shown in section; Fig. 2, a sectional view taken online 2-2 of Fig. 1; Fig. 3, a lan view showing the form and position 0the device when first applied to the rail, and Fig. 4, a siinilar viewshowing'the device bent so as to he fitted to the rail.

' Like characters of reference designate like parts in the severalfigures of the drawings.

Referring to the drawings, A designates e, railway rajl having the usualbase flanges a, and B one of the ties on which the rail is 511 creed,

* e anti-creeping device of my invention consists 1 refornbly of asingle malleable iron cast ng formed so as to provide a jaw ol' 'railengaging member C, e jaw or rail 3 engaging member D, and a connectinmom her or cross bar E, the latter adapte to exbend under the base ofthe rail. The jaw C, in the particular form of my inventionSpecification of Letters Patent.

Patented Apr. if 1915.

Serial No. 786.648.

shown, is provided with a tie abutting member F which hears against theface or side of the tie B. W

The application of the device to the rail is best shown in Figs. 3 and4. The end of the cross llal' having on it the jaw I) is thrust undcrtherail and the jaw ii'fl of the base flanges a with the tie o A meinl' r Fagainst the tie If desired the s c of the jzzW C may he ferns-d so thatm has n wedging on the hes-e flange ch case the jaw nrav h en into placeover the ed e of the hinge by e hammer. The cross our is made longenoughso that with jow (l fitted on one edge of the rail the jaw D willclear the other edge as shown in Fig. 3. The cross bar is made thinenough so that it will readily bend and the jaw I) is hrought intooperative engagement with the rail by bending the her shown in Fig l.'lhis may be done by hammering the jaw I) toward the tie B. Thishammering may he continued until both jaws make a tight lit on the baseflanges of the raili Preferably the device is so constructed that whenfitted to the rail the 'jaw l) stands away from the tie against Thedevice above described has several very important advantages over theonepiece rail anchors now in use. Unepiece nnchore are desirahleparticularly because of low manufacturing cost and economy andconvenience in shipping and handling. However. they have not prover. asreliable in holding the rail or in resisting vibration and other causesink ing to loosen and displace them as the devices which, by being madeof two or more parts, provide means for effecting a positive grip on therail. The onepiece anchor most commonly used consists of a rigid barformed at opposite ends with jaws for engaging the opposite edges of therail base and at one end with a projection or arm designed to hearagainst the face of the tie. The device is applied to the rail byrotating or turning it until both flaws are engaged with the rail base,the device being so placed upon the rail that when rotated to itsoperative position the arm or projectic-n will bear firmly against thetie. It will re readily seen that the conditions governing theapplication of the device to the rail, in the first place. make it asonicwhatdelicate matter to obtain the correct fit of the jaws to therail and the' arm or projection against the tie, and, in the secondplace, make it nec that, if a tight grip is to be obtained at all, thedevice should be very accurately designed both as to the conformation ofthe jaw faces and also the precise'length of the connecting bar. Becauseof the slope of the upper surfaces of the base flanges a slightvariation from the intended angular position of the device will resultin very materially decreasing the areas of contact between the jaws andthe rail. When one considers that these devices are made in largenumbers and of malleable castings which are likely to shrink or beotherwise deformed in the process of male ing, it will be seen thatthere is a considerable probability that even if applied to the rail ina skillful manner the devices will not, in all cases, take the requisitefirm hold upon the rail either for the purpose of resisting the tendencyof the latter to creep or to resist the various causes tending to shakethe devices use from the rail. Moreover, the very fin/t that the wholedevice has to be r0- tatcd in order to bring it to its operativeposition makesit impossible to obtain surfaces of contact with the railof considerable area. My device, as above described, has none of thesedisadvantages. The surfaces of contact between jaw C, for example, andthe rail may be made as great as necessary, the jaw may be driven uponthe rail, and at the same time against the tie, and after this has beendone the fitting of the other jaw D to the opposite edge of the raildoes not involve any disturbance of the position of jaw C. As the jaw Cdoes not need to change Its angular position, as is necessarily the casewith a device which, to be fitted to the rail has to be rotated as awhole, the recess of the jaw may have the sameconfiguration as the edgeof the base flange which it is designed to engage. This simplifies thedesi n of the device and insures a more accurate and reliable fit.Furthermore, the device of my invention does not require any skill forits application to the rail.

lVith these prior devices the relations between the jaws are fixed atall times.- Consequently, the device is removable by are-- verse rockingmovement and tends either to slzil't its position on the rail, or todrop off of the rail whenever it is no longer under a rocking tensionwith the abutmentagainst the tie, as for example, when the contractionof the rail carries the abutment rearwardly from the tie. \Vith mydevice, the

operative relation of the jaws to each other is dillerent from theirrelative positions when the device is first applied to the rail, that isto say, the normal relation of the jaws is such that the device maybereadily applied to. the rail, whereupon, after they are applied to therail, this relatiwe position is permanently changed, whereby not onlycan the devices not be rocked in a reverse movement to remove them fromthe rail, but they are permanently held in such snug engagement with therail that the device will not change its position on the rail even whenthe abutment is not in contact with the tie, but whenever the expansionor creeping of the rail brings the abutment in contact with the tie, thegrip of the device on the rail will be such that any further tendency ofthe rail to creep will inevitably swing the outer jaw D toward the tie,thereby either further bending the bar Eor, in case the bar should betoo rigid for this purpose, then rocking the device as a whole upon thefulcrum accorded by the abutment. Preferably, however, the bar E, whileof. sullicient tensile strength not to break under creeping strains,will bend, thereby keeping the face of the abutment F over against thetie and preventing any tendency to rock the abutment so as to cut intothe ties, this being an item of some importance where creosoted or otherspecially treated ties are used.

While I have shown and described a preferred embodiment I do not wish tobe understood as limiting the scope of the invention to this particularform of anchor as'the novel idea at the basis of the invention might beutilized in rail anchors quite differently shaped and constructed.

\Vherever in the claim I have referred to any part of the device beingbendable to a permanent set, it should be understood that the termpermanent set is used to differentiate this feature of my device fromthe bending of a, spring or other resilient part as sometimes used inthe prior art, In my device the '-"set is permanent in the sense that itwill retain the shape to which it is bent, although, with propermaterial, of course it can be thus bent and unbent repeatedly as may berequired in successive applications of the device.

I claim:

l. A rail anchor comprising a connecting bar adapted to extend under arail and provided at opposite ends with rail engaging jaws and at oneend with a tie engaging abutment, all so arranged that the jaw on theend of the bar farthest away from the abutment will be held out ofengagement with the tie, the connecting bar being bendable lengthwise ofthe rail to a permanent set to bring the aws into operative engagementwith the rail.

2. A rail anchor consisting of a single

